William Shakespeare - William Shakespeare - Complete Works

An suffer'd me by th' voice of slaves to be

Whoop'd out of Rome. Now this extremity

Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope,

Mistake me not, to save my life; for if

I had fear'd death, of all the men i' th' world

I would have 'voided thee; but in mere spite,

To be full quit of those my banishers,

Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast

A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge

Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims

Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight

And make my misery serve thy turn. So use it

That my revengeful services may prove

As benefits to thee; for I will fight

Against my cank'red country with the spleen

Of all the under fiends. But if so be

Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes

Th'art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am

Longer to live most weary, and present

My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;

Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,

Since I have ever followed thee with hate,

Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,

And cannot live but to thy shame, unless

It be to do thee service.

AUFIDIUS. O Marcius, Marcius!

Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart

A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yond cloud speak divine things,

And say ''Tis true,' I'd not believe them more

Than thee, all noble Marcius. Let me twine

Mine arms about that body, where against

My grained ash an hundred times hath broke

And scarr'd the moon with splinters; here I clip

The anvil of my sword, and do contest

As hotly and as nobly with thy love

As ever in ambitious strength I did

Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,

I lov'd the maid I married; never man

Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,

Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart

Than when I first my wedded mistress saw

Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell the

We have a power on foot, and I had purpose

Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,

Or lose mine arm for't. Thou hast beat me out

Twelve several times, and I have nightly since

Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me-

We have been down together in my sleep,

Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat-

And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius,

Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that

Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all

From twelve to seventy, and, pouring war

Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,

Like a bold flood o'erbeat. O, come, go in,

And take our friendly senators by th' hands,

Who now are here, taking their leaves of me

Who am prepar'd against your territories,

Though not for Rome itself.

CORIOLANUS. You bless me, gods!

AUFIDIUS. Therefore, most. absolute sir, if thou wilt have

The leading of thine own revenges, take

Th' one half of my commission, and set down-

As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st

Thy country's strength and weakness- thine own ways,

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,

Or rudely visit them in parts remote

To fright them ere destroy. But come in;

Let me commend thee first to those that shall

Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!

And more a friend than e'er an enemy;

Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand; most welcome!

Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS

The two SERVINGMEN come forward

FIRST SERVANT. Here's a strange alteration!

SECOND SERVANT. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with

a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report

of him.

FIRST SERVANT. What an arm he has! He turn'd me about with his

finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

SECOND SERVANT. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in

him; he had, sir, a kind of face, methought- I cannot tell how to

term it.

FIRST SERVANT. He had so, looking as it were- Would I were hang'd,

but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

SECOND SERVANT. So did I, I'll be sworn. He is simply the rarest

man i' th' world.

FIRST SERVANT. I think he is; but a greater soldier than he you wot

on.

SECOND SERVANT. Who, my master?

FIRST SERVANT. Nay, it's no matter for that.

SECOND SERVANT. Worth six on him.

FIRST SERVANT. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the

greater soldier.

SECOND SERVANT. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that;

for the defence of a town our general is excellent.

FIRST SERVANT. Ay, and for an assault too.

Re-enter the third SERVINGMAN

THIRD SERVANT. O slaves, I can tell you news- news, you rascals!

BOTH. What, what, what? Let's partake.

THIRD SERVANT. I would not be a Roman, of all nations;

I had as lief be a condemn'd man.

BOTH. Wherefore? wherefore?

THIRD SERVANT. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general-

Caius Marcius.

FIRST SERVANT. Why do you say 'thwack our general'?

THIRD SERVANT. I do not say 'thwack our general,' but he was always

good enough for him.

SECOND SERVANT. Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever too

hard for him, I have heard him say so himself.

FIRST SERVANT. He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth

on't; before Corioli he scotch'd him and notch'd him like a

carbonado.

SECOND SERVANT. An he had been cannibally given, he might have

broil'd and eaten him too.

FIRST SERVANT. But more of thy news!

THIRD SERVANT. Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son

and heir to Mars; set at upper end o' th' table; no question

asked him by any of the senators but they stand bald before him.

Our general himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself

with's hand, and turns up the white o' th' eye to his discourse.

But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' th' middle

and but one half of what he was yesterday, for the other has half

by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says,

and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th' ears; he will mow all

down before him, and leave his passage poll'd.

SECOND SERVANT. And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine.

THIRD SERVANT. Do't! He will do't; for look you, sir, he has as

many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as it were, durst

not- look you, sir- show themselves, as we term it, his friends,

whilst he's in directitude.

FIRST SERVANT. Directitude? What's that?

THIRD SERVANT. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again and

the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies

after rain, and revel an with him.

FIRST SERVANT. But when goes this forward?

THIRD SERVANT. To-morrow, to-day, presently. You shall have the

drum struck up this afternoon; 'tis as it were parcel of their

feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

SECOND SERVANT. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again.

This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and

breed ballad-makers.

FIRST SERVANT. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as

day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent.

Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull'd, deaf, sleepy,

insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a

destroyer of men.

SECOND SERVANT. 'Tis so; and as war in some sort may be said to be

a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of

cuckolds.

FIRST SERVANT. Ay, and it makes men hate one another.